The Temple
by D3raNged CupCaK3
Summary: For those of you who don't know me, welcome to this story that I wrote and submitted to the EQD horror story contest, For those of you who do know me, let me give some info. Yes, Rainy Days is in fact a character I planned on including in my other story at some point. I don't think I'm that good at horror, but you guys might still enjoy it anyway. Looking forward to feedback.


"Wake up, Silver Storm!" Twilight shouted at her pupil.

The young colt jolted awake.

"This is the fifth time I've had to wake you up. Did you not get enough sleep last night?"

"I'm sorry, I was up all night practicing this one spell, and I guess I forgot to get some sleep in."

"It's good that you're ambitious to learn, but you also have to give some time for yourself."

"But I really want to get this spell down, I haven't made much progress in weeks."

"What spell are you trying to learn? I've taught you most of the basics. It better not be the spell I'm thinking of."

The silver unicorn looked at her with his golden eyes in a way that let her know she was right.

"Silver, I've told you already, the magic bolt is a dangerous spell to learn for beginners. I don't want you, or anypony else to get hurt. I hope you understand."

Silver sighed. "I understand, Princess Twilight."

"Good, now class dismissed. I'll start training you in more advanced magic next week, but I ask for you to be patient."

"Alright, thank you."

The young colt trotted outside of the library, still somewhat disappointed. He was impatient and wanted to prove he could go above and beyond in his studies, especially since he was hoof-picked to be Twilight's student. He was deep in thought, until he heard a scream, and was tackled from behind.

"Ugh, Rainy!"

"Hey there, Silver."

"Were you waiting for me again?"

"As always." She giggled.

"I thought you had flight training today."

"I did and it goes by much faster when you don't fall asleep. I think I've got dive-bombing down." She joked at him.

"You know you're supposed to pull up, right?"

"Details, details. Are we going to hang out some time this century?"

"I'd like to, but I want to get that magic bolt spell down."

"Come on, you've been practicing that for weeks now! Come on and live a little, have some fun."

"You're starting to sound like Princess Twilight..."

The gray-blue mare started to do an impression of Twilight. "Silver, your homework for tonight is to not study, have fun, and hang out with friends." She giggled again.

"Basically."

"Then we should totally hang out today, come on!"

"Fine, what did you have in mind?"

"Just a little exploring of the Everfree."

"Rainy, you know that's dangerous!"

"That's what makes it exciting. We won't be in there long, if we get lost, I can fly up and find the way out, no biggie. What do you say?"

He knew it was a bad idea, but he knew she was dead set on going and couldn't convince her otherwise, so he gave in.

"Alright, alright. Fine. We'll go."

"Yes!" She did a backflip in the air to show her excitement and dashed away towards the edge of Ponyville.

"Rainy, wait up!"

He chased her to the border of the Everfree Forest where she waited for him at the edge.

"You ready for this?" she asked.

"No, I still don't think this is a good idea."

"That's funny, I'm the one with the wings, but you're the one being the chicken here."

"I'm not chickening out; it's just that I doubt we should be going in without anypony who can fight if we get found by any creatures."

"And who do you think will help us?"

Nobody came to mind. The only others they could really ask for help would stop them from going in in the first place.

"If we don't get help, then we shouldn't be going in."

"Fine, I'll go explore without you." She flew up over the trees and left him.

He didn't want to leave her alone, but he really didn't want to go in there. He paced back and forth, trying to decide whether or not to go after her. A few minutes of indecisiveness later, she flew back over to him.

"Hey, come check this out, I found this really cool structure."

She picked him up and struggled to fly, but managed to keep them just above the trees. She headed over to the direction where she saw the structure.

"Hold up, I'm getting tired." she explained just before landing. "It's over this way."

They headed for that area, and shortly it came into view.

"Wow. I wonder what's inside." Silver said excitedly.

"Oh, now you're on board with the idea." The two walked up to the entrance. "It's really dark in there. Did Twilight teach you the illumination spell?"

"It's right up there in the list of the basic basics, right next to levitation and breathing."

They carefully stepped inside.

"This place is really creepy." Rainy said.

"Yet so fascinating."

They wandered deeper inside, and let out a collective scream.

"Something bit me!" Rainy yelled.

"Me too! I hate bugs!"

They continued on until a frightening sight greeted them.

"I-is that?" Rainy started panicking.

Silver moved closer to inspect the skeleton of a pony slumped up against the wall.

"Eww! Don't touch it!"

"I'm not, calm down." He brightened his illumination, and continued inspecting it.

"Can we leave now? I don't like it here, and that isn't making me want me to stay any longer."

"Yeah we should probably get out of here." agreed Silver, stopping his inspection.

They started running back to the exit, only to find it gone and replaced by a wall.

"What? Why is this here? This shouldn't be here! That…that wasn't there when we came in." Rainy's panicking was well placed knowing that they would only be able to go deeper.

"I don't like this any more than you do, but our only choice is to go farther in. Just stay close to me and we should be fine." explained Silver.

They backtracked to the skeleton, and noticed an unlit torch not too much farther ahead.

"Rainy, go grab that torch for my really quick." She took it and brought it back. "Alright…here goes nothing." He concentrated and strained a little, and a few sparks flew from the magic bolt spell and landed on the torch, igniting it, and then took possession using his levitation. "Haven't gotten it completely down yet, but at least it's useful." He continued inspecting the skeleton.

"What? Again?" complained Rainy.

"I didn't get to finish." He eventually came across cuts in the bone on the side it was lying on. "Whoever this was, they were either being attacked outside, or there is something in here." exclaimed Silver.

"I'd prefer the first option, cold-hearted as I sound."

"I don't blame you."

They pressed on, deeper inside, coming across the occasional rat, cobweb and others who had shared the same fate. Rainy stepped on a plate, and a few darts flew at her. Quick to act, she jumped back and the darts barely missed her.

"Ok, I officially want out of here!"

"That's why we're still going. The exit is blocked off, so we need to find another way out." Silver noticed something on the darts and examined them. "There's some sort of black goo on them."

"I don't care about the goo, all I care about right now is finding an exit." They forced themselves to keep going on until they both screamed again. "Stupid bugs! Stop biting me!"

"This is getting annoying, I can't even see them. Whatever, let's keep…" He stopped when he looked in the distance and saw dim white orbs, which quickly disappeared.

"What? What's the matter?"

"I thought I saw something."

"Please tell me you're joking. I could use a good laugh right now."

"I wish I was."

"Great…just perfect."

They kept going deeper, when Silver sprung a trap, releasing more darts. Rainy tackled him to stop him from getting hit, only to get stuck in her hind leg.

"Gah! I'm hit!"

"Rainy!" He pulled the dart from her and she grunted in pain, a small trickle of blood started flowing. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be fine." He helped her up.

"Can you walk?"

She took a few steps. "Only a little pain, nothing I can't handle."

"Ok, and thank you, by the way."

"No problem." The moved a bit farther, and Rainy just stopped.

"What?" Silver questioned.

"I think I hear something…"

"I don't hear anything." They waited for a few moments.

"It's getting louder, are you sure you don't hear that?"

"I'm not hearing anything at all."

"Maybe it was the stuff on-AAAAAAAAHHHH!" She jumped away from the wall, screaming.

"What, what, what! Why are you screaming! There's nothing there!" Silver yelled at her, confused.

"Get it away! Get it away!" She continued screaming and flew deeper in alone.

"Rainy!"

He chased after her, knowing that if they get separated, they might not find a way out. He continued to run after her, but reached two new paths. Her screaming was echoing, but sounded as if it was coming from the right. He headed down that way, and came across a large room. There was a hole just big enough for them to fit through, but Rainy wasn't in here.

He went back in search of his friend, choosing the other path this time. Almost immediately, he was struck in his side by another dart trap. He pulled it out with some pain, and pressed on. He could still hear her screaming, but he could also hear something else, possibly whatever is going after Rainy. It was a very intimidating, almost laughing sound, as if whatever was after her was enjoying the chase. Her screaming grew louder, so he was getting closer.

"Rainy!" He saw his friend cowering against a wall of a dead end, but also could see a tall shade, with angry, glowing white eyes. Had had no wings, yet it didn't touch the ground, but it a prominent feature was its long arms with huge claws. It looked at him with extreme malice, then slowly sunk into the floor. Getting over his fears for the moment, he checked on her to make sure she wasn't injured.

"Are you alright? Did it hurt you?"

"No." She was soft spoken, still instilled with terror.

"Come on, we have to move, I found an exit, and I'm sure whatever that thing is won't let us go off easy."

The two ran, stopping shortly, putting out the torch and hiding behind old pots and urns when they saw the orbs. They didn't dare look at it, for fear of being seen. They could hear its low, ghastly voice, grunting, as if from anger, really close. The pair kept hidden, trying not to scream as it drew near. It was nearly right on top of them, but stopped. It waited for a few moments, suddenly smashing aginst the wall next to Silver with a large metal object, and finally retreating.

They could hear it leaving, and peeked to see a glimpse of the shade now newly equipped with two massive blades that were longer than its appendages, and a giant scratch it left indented in the wall. After it left, they both let out the breath they were holding. Rainy slumped down and started sobbing quietly.

"It's all my fault…I should have listened to you. This was a terrible idea, and now we're going to die for it."

"It's not all your fault…I was the one who wanted to go in here in the first place."

"But I was the one who brought us here."

"You know what? We can argue over whose fault it was after we get out of here. I found an exit, and it's not far away. Don't count us out just yet."

She was still very upset with herself, but at least she was up and moving. They cautiously and quietly moved on over to the other room. They saw the exit hole in the corner, and Rainy went to test it, and with a bit of difficulty managed to squeeze through. He looked around, but saw nothing he could use as a platform to levitate on, and he was still faulty on his lessons of self-levitation.

"I can't get up there." He told his free friend.

"I can go get help, but I don't want to leave you."

"It's fine, go get help, I can hide somewhere until you get back."

"Ok, just hold out, I'll be right back."

She dashed off to get help, and he was currently trapped with the shade. Looking around for what he could hide behind if he needed to, he noticed old scriptures on the wall. The light from the hole illuminated a part of what was written. Twilight had taught him to read ancient scripts, as it allowed him to learn more spells by book.

He examined them, and from what he could make out, he discovered that this temple was built and magically protected to keep the shade in, as it was an entity forged from pure darkness and was destructive by instinct. He also learned that this shade was causing havoc long before Equestria was even founded.

There were pictures of runes as well, one in particular that looked similar to the one in the center of the room. The rune in the center was one for a highly advanced prism spell, once used to contain the entity. There were five candles in the picture, as well as in the room. He struggled to relight the torch, and attempted to light the candles, but they wouldn't light.

He looked at the runes closer, and noticed each was a different spell that activated the candles. The only spell he recognized was levitation, however. He walked over to the specified rune, finding it relative from the entrance, and cast levitation. A small dark purple orb formed and hovered over the now activated rune. He noticed one of the candles was also lit.

He paused when he heard another smash on the wall, but it sounded distant. He examined the runes again and noticed one meant light, and another meant containment. He used his illumination spell on the rune and a white orb floated above it. He cast the force-field spell around another , and it was drawn in and a pink orb was created. He heard another clang of the blades against the wall, closer this time.

He hurried to examine the remaining two spells he had to use, one being electricity and the other he couldn't make out. He rushed to the rune he could make out, and attempted to light it with magic bolt. The spell was too weak to activate it, but he kept trying. A number of failures later, he heard another smash in the hallway leading to that room.

"Come on, come oooon…" he whispered to himself.

He focused really hard, and didn't perfectly cast it, but it was strong enough to activate the rune, showing a blue orb of energy. He wanted to go back to the wall to try and figure out what that final spell was, but he could hear it just outside, and dove behind a nearby pillar. It clearly noticed the floating orbs, and knew he was in there somewhere. It went around the room, smashing random pots and slashing at pillars to try to flush him out with a reaction.

"He's in here!" could faintly be heard outside, and drew the shades attention.

"Be careful, dad, there's something in there."

"Don't worry, I'll handle this." A spray of dust came up as Rainy's dad, a dark gray pegasi with a brown mane, kicked in the hole. "Hey, tall, dark, and smoky, bet you can't catch me!"

He flew out of the room with the shade right on his tail. Rainy and Twilight both dropped in, and Silver revealed himself.

"Silver! Are you hurt?" asked Twilight, worried for her student.

"No, I'm fine. I've been working on these runes, but I don't know what the last spell is."

"Where did you find these?"

"On the wall over here."

They hurried over there and Twilight scanned the scripture.

"I've got it, but we need to lure it back here. You two, get out of here. I'll worry about your father, Rainy."

Twilight levitated Silver out through the hole, and Rainy followed suit. They watched as her father lured it back in the chamber and continued taunting it, which missed a strike and embedded its blade deep in the wall.

"Whoa, felt the wind on that one."

"Gray, get it in the middle!"

"On it!"

The shade clipped Gray, and he fell into a wall, and the shade lunged. The blades came inches from hitting their mark, and grabbed Gray with its claws, and started slamming him on the walls around the room. Rainy was breathless at the intensity of her dad fighting this dark creature.

"I see how you want to play." Gray and the entity were out of view, but the shade was knocked into the center where Twilight activated the last rune, and it was trapped, suspended above the ground in a prism of light and energy. It bashed against it, only to bounce off the boundaries. Both Twilight and Gray flew out to meet the kids.

"You two are in a whole mess of trouble." Gray exclaimed.

"Sorry, dad…"

"I've told you already, I don't want you going off by yourself outside of Ponyville."

"I know, but I just wanted to do a little exploring around. You go in the Everfree often, and I just wanted to check it out."

"Well you certainly got to explore a lot more than you were expecting. Next time, ask me first, and I'll make sure you get back safely."

"Alright."

Silver was thinking most of the time during Gray's talking. "Excuse me, Rainy's dad?"

"Call me Gray." "Ok, Gray, How were you able to see that thing? We didn't really see it until we were hit by these darts with this black goo on them."

Rainy spoke up. "You know how we were being bitten by bugs?"

"Yeah?"

"They were actually thorns, coated with a neurotoxin that heightens the sense of fear, which it then feeds off of and uses it to manifest for that particular victim." Twilight explained.

"How do you know that?" "One of thethorns was caught in her tail, and I have a book called _Creatures of the old ages_ and I recall seeing something similar."

"So…you two were afraid?" "Of course, you are my student, and are just as important to me as Rainy is to her dad, and the fear of losing either one of you allowed us to see it."

"We should get going, Twilight invited us to dinner at the palace, and it should almost be done."

"You two go on ahead, I'll bring him home." Gray and Rainy started off. "So, did you learn anything from this?"

"I think so. Fear is powerful, and even though it may blind you, it can also show you knew things and keep you moving along through tough experiences." "Close enough, but anyway, I should really get you home, your mother is probably worried sick."

Silver hopped on Twilight's back, and she flew him back to Ponyville, where he decided he'd never go exploring again.


End file.
